This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by xarry2: 26.01.2008 17:52.

The following questions arose during the last coaching:

Above NL100 its not really worth limping small pairs early, right?

I don't recommend to limp in early position with pocketpairs. When we consider a call according to the call 15 rule we could basically limp them. However, we will have to fold against any raise after us with our small stack. Especially in early position it is very probable that a player after us will make a raise.
I decide to limp PPs only in late position (and sometimes in MP3) under decent circumstances, i.e. limpers in front of me, a 15BB+ stack and most important passive players behind me. Thus I will often get to see a flop and with our shortstack it should be quite easy to extract money when we hit our set in a multiway pot.

How much "positive equity" do you need to reraise? Example: The break even Equity is 50%. Do you raise with a hand that has 52% Equity against Villains Range? Or is more or less Equity enough for you?

Very interesting question. Imo there a several aspects we should consider here.
To start with, we have to ask ourselves how far we want to go. Playing adv. SSS certainly demands to play more marginal situations than the basic strategy does in order to maximize our winnings. However, by playing marginal situations we also increase the variance. That's why I'm not very keen on a reraise/call with only 0.5% edge. Not to mention that our calculations are often based on estimations. Seldomly we can put an opponent to 100% on a certain range. Why should I then risk my stack for only 0.5% edge if my uncertainty is maybe +/-2%? Nevertheless, the better your reads/stats are the closer you can go to the limit.
Another point is the rake. If we have to pay rake (up to NL 200 on party we have to consider the rake) we will have to take it into account, too.
So, on lower limits you should calculate around 2.5% edge in order to play profitable . But even if I play on limits where the blinds overcompensate the rake I won't go too close to the break even equity. Only If my reads are very good I play hands with at least about 0.5-1% edge.

Last coaching we talked about Squeezing as a shortstack.
"A squeeze, or to put a squeeze on somebody, or a squeeze play, means to make a bluff in the first betting round in the form of a large raise after there has already been one raise and at least one call. Whereas the first player ideally folds, since he's now caught between two or more opponents and doesn't know what the players after him will do, the second player and all those after him often don't have strong enough hands to call a reraise and so will fold."
This is a bigstack definition. If we as a shortstack make a squeeze we have to go all-in preflop. This has 2 consequences: first we don't have as much FE preflop as a Bigstack. If a bigstack makes a squeeze the initial raiser must also fear playing postflop in a big pot. So he really needs a hand to call or push the sqeeze. Against a shortie he can call according to the odds and will thus be calling looser than against a bigstack.
Secondly, we have to set up different hand requirements as a BS. A BS does not only take a look on the equity but more at the playability (deceptiveness) of his hand. So he will often play small PPs or SCs maybe AXs. A shortstack, on the other hand, must almost only consider the equity of his hand against the calling range (besides history and table image)

BU (TAG) steals and SB coldcalls OOP. BU+SB vs BB is the perfect squeeze situation for us. BU will have a big open raising range and SB shows weakness through a call OOP. (CO+BU vs BB is also a decent situation btw)

The basic formula here is: (SB declared as dead money; I will come back to this)

EV = FE(BU)*80 + (1-FE(BU)[Equity*(170+35+10) - 1-Equity*160]

BU FI Range: 25%
Now we have to think of possible calling ranges:
I will give him sth like 77+,A9s+,KQs,ATo+,KQo. (a loose range without history imo)
This equals 10% and about 60% resulting FE(BU) (10/25 = 0.4)

EV = 80*0.6 + 0.4[215*0.35 - 160*0.65] = 36.5$

So we make good profit here. Break even FE is about 25% (BU+SB) meaning 50% for each of them. This would be a very loose calling range and is not very realistic (especially for the SB)

What is important in general?

- loose open raising range ( ATS > 25% is good)

- Coldcallers should be loose but not too passive. Otherwise we just can't treat them as dead money since they can often have strong hands even if they only call the stealraise

- our stack should be beetwenn 15-20BB. with less our FE decreases and with more we must be tighter.

Additional aspects:

- reads about the calling range of the initial raiser (the tighter the better)
the more fe we have preflop the looser we can squeeze.

- history and reads. especially if our opponent knows we are squeezing quite loose we must be tighter.

- the limit you play. I would recommend to start with squeezing on NL 200 and higher. On lower limits the overall aggression is simply to low.

Which other hands can we resteal with?

In this situation we could resteal
ATo, A7s
KQo, KTs
QTs
J9s
T9s
any pair

Our EV with 22 for example:

EV = 80*0.6 + 0.4[215*0.39 - 160*0.61] = 42.5$

With T9s its similar to KTs. So you see you can even get looser than the listed range. Always depending on the calling range of course.

However, I can just recommend to everyone to make some example calculations before starting to
squeeze with this loose range. The profit (or loss) of a squeeze can greatly vary with different circumstances!
Start with easy spots in order to get used to squeezing.